Assessment of the development of aquifer management councils (COTAS) for sustainable groundwater management in Guanajuato, Mexico

Collective groundwater management by water users—self-regulation—is increasingly advocated as a complement to state regulation. This article analyzes the attempts by the Guanajuato State Water Commission (CEAG) in central Mexico to promote user self-regulation through the establishment and development of 14 Consejos Técnicos de Aguas (COTAS; Technical Water Councils). Based on a joint assessment by a former senior CEAG policy-maker and two researchers, Guanajuato’s groundwater-management policy is reviewed to understand why user self-regulation was less successful than expected. It concludes that increasing awareness and improving the knowledge base on groundwater is not enough to trigger self-regulation by groundwater users. A wider delegation of responsibilities to the COTAS is necessary, combined with: (1) functioning mechanisms for enforcing groundwater legislation, especially concerning well permits and pumped volumes, and (2) mechanisms that ensure the legitimacy and accountability of users’ representatives to both users and state agencie

Joint source-channel coding for a quantum multiple access channel

Suppose that two senders each obtain one share of the output of a classical, bivariate, correlated information source. They would like to transmit the correlated source to a receiver using a quantum multiple access channel. In prior work, Cover, El Gamal, and Salehi provided a combined source-channel coding strategy for a classical multiple access channel which outperforms the simpler "separation" strategy where separate codebooks are used for the source coding and the channel coding tasks. In the present paper, we prove that a coding strategy similar to the Cover-El Gamal-Salehi strategy and a corresponding quantum simultaneous decoder allow for the reliable transmission of a source over a quantum multiple access channel, as long as a set of information inequalities involving the Holevo quantity hold.Comment: 21 pages, v2: minor changes, accepted into Journal of Physics

Development of standardized method for the determination of the degradation of nitric oxide (NO) in the air by photocatalytic materials: Inter-laboratory validation tests

International audienceThe need of a uniform experimental procedure for assessing the performance of photocatalytic inorganic materials contained in building materials led the European Committee for Standardization (CEN/TC386/WG2) to elaborate a Technical Specification (TS).Taking into consideration the importance of the effects which will be of possible variations in the implementation of the reference method, parallel photocatalytic tests according to the TS were performed in the current study. 6 European labs were participated in an inter-laboratory exercise where the experiments had to be done in a special design CEN reactor using LED system. The experimental procedure and conditions were taken from the draft TS and were referred to the average irradiance, inlet NO & NO 2 concentration, T o C and RH inside the reactor, flow and reactor net volume. Identical photocatalytic samples were provided to all participants. The results obtained from the 6 labs showed a variation between 18% and 31% on the photocatalytic NO conversion while the mean value was 26%. The corresponding photocatalytic rate was ranged between 2600 μg/m 2 h and 4100 μg/m 2 h presenting a mean value of 3400 μg/m 2 h. The homogeneity of the lamp and the homogeneity of the deposition of TiO 2 are the main factors impacting the results

U-Pb dating of Ordovician felsic volcanism in the Schistose Domain of the Galicia-Trás-os-Montes Zone near Cabo Ortegal (NW Spain)

The northern termination of the Schistose Domain of the Galicia-Trás-os-Montes Zone is a tectonic slice named the Rio Baio Thrust Sheet, which is sandwiched between the Cabo Ortegal Complex and the Ollo de Sapo Domain of the Central-Iberian Zone. The Rio Baio Thrust Sheet is formed by two volcanosedimentary series, the Loiba and the Queiroga Series. The Loiba Series contains calc-alkaline dacite and rhyolite, while the overlying Queiroga Series has alkaline rhyolite. These series were considered to be in stratigraphically upwards continuity and believed to be Silurian in age. U-Pb dating of an alkaline rhyolite in the Queiroga Series provides an Arenig age of 475 ± 2 Ma. This age makes the Queiroga Series the oldest known stratigraphic unit in the Schistose Domain of the Galicia-Trás-os-Montes Zone, impeding correlation between the lithostratigraphic sequences of Ortegal and Central Galicia. As well as providing evidence of an unforeseen structural complexity within the Rio Baio Sheet, the new data supports the notion that the Schistose Domain is not parautochtonous, but a separate lithotectonic unit in thrust contact with the underlying Central-Iberian Zone